Google Plus has been live for a month, and some have already begun to fret about its health. According to Experian Hitwise, Google Plus traffic for last week declined 3% from the week before. This might suggest that some of the initial shine has worn off, but it’s certainly too early to call it a trend.
Google Plus has surpassed 10 million users, which is impressive considering the service is still limiting sign-ups. Referral traffic from the service might be down in some parts of the Web, but it’s quickly become one of our top traffic sources at ReadWriteWeb.
Meanwhile, the Hitwise numbers show a 9% increase in upstream traffic from Gmail, suggesting that Google users have integrated the service into their lives.
The point is, any predictions about the service’s future growth are purely speculative.
It’s not surprising that some hype has worn off after a month, and a 3% weekly decline may mean little, especially considering the gains in other areas, like traffic from Gmail, surely an important part of the Google Plus strategy. Furthermore, these data are U.S. only, and they don’t include mobile or third-party traffic. This is an incomplete picture of the health of Google Plus.
Has your use of Google Plus declined since you started?
